Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He lifted his head from the pillow. He looked at his phone, no new notifications. He sighed.

He had met some guy at a club the night before, they had danced together, talked, and made out. They drunkenly exchanged numbers and the guy had promised to text him soon. Well the chances of him even remembering what happened weren’t all that great in the first place.

Ok that was a lie. Not about the make out session, but it wasn’t just some guy. It was Lance, Lance from his chemistry class, Lance who would flirt with anything that has two legs and something in between. Lance was probably bisexual, or maybe pansexual? Keith hadn’t asked.

Lance and Keith didn’t normally get along all that well, their personalities clashed mainly because they were both very competitive. But none the less Keith had somehow gotten a crush on this cocky, flirtatious and sometimes even a bit arrogant young man. Well, maybe he should say boy, he could be kind of childish sometimes.

Lance wasn’t bad looking, at least from Keiths point of view, he has nice facial features, nice muscles, not too scrawny and not too buff for Keith’s taste, and as much as he was cocky he also had a certain charm to him.

‘’why do you keep checking your phone?’’

‘’Huh?’’ Shiro, his roommate had caught him off guard.

‘’your phone, you keep checking it? Did you meet someone at the club or something?’’ He raises an eyebrow as he looks at Keith with a slight smile on his face.

A slight blush appeared on his cheeks, ‘’it’s none of your business’’ he mumbled.

‘’Oooh my oh my, does the lone wolf Keith have a crush on someone? Who is he? Do I know him? Is he hot?’’

Shiro knew he was gay, he wasn’t weird about it or anything like that, he was nice, a good friend.

‘’Oh shut up shiro’’ He threw his pillow at him and it hit him right in the face. ‘’Hey! watch out you could have hit my laptop.’’ He laughed teasingly. Keith just grunted in response and put his head straight into his mattress again.

Keith? A crush? No way. Okay maybe, just maybe he had developed a slight, teeny tiny crush on a certain latino. Was he hoping that Lance remembered last night? Maybe… Did he want to go on dates and make out more with lance? Perhaps. He was a really good kisser, that much he couldn’t deny.

Well, Keith didn’t know much about romance, other than what he had seen in movies. He hadn’t had any real relationships before, only a few flings and one night stands, nothing serious. Or course he had had crushes, he was human after all.

‘’Gonna go for a walk, see you later’’ He grabbed his jacket and phone before he went out the door, he could hear Shiro say ‘’alligator’’ as he closed the door behind him. Shiro was terrible. He was the kind of guy who would make dad jokes, truly terrible.

As he left the dorm he could feel his phone vibrate in his pocket. Lance? Probably not. He decided to head towards his favorite café as he took out his phone, more vibrations.

Space dad>>>>Keith Kogayne

(12:07)Space dad: wAIT is it that guy you met at P3 last night?? The guy you abandoned us for??
(12:07)Space dad: Doesn’t he work at that café we always go to??
(12:07)Space dad: Whats his name again?
(12:08)Space dad: you’re always staring at him lol

Oh god.

(12:09)Keith kogayne: Just do your damn paper.
(12:09)Keith kogayne: And I didn’t abandon you???
(12:09)Space dad: Lance! That was his name right?
(12:09)Space dad: HAhah I’m right aren’t I. are you heading there now? to the café that is. I’ll join you, I could use a break.
(12:09)Keith kogayne: No. And okay, meet you there.

Keith actually hoped Lance wasn’t at work today since it would probably be really awkward. If he could even remember, he seemed pretty drunk. If he had any common sense he wouldn’t go clubbing the day before his shift since they had stayed out really late together. The only reason Keith was awake was because of Shiro, who the hell got up at nine in the morning after a night in the city to write a paper that wasn’t even due until four days later? Keith was a light sleeper, almost anything woke him up.

Keith didn’t normally go to clubs, he enjoys a cozy bar much more but even that was a rare sight. It was no secret to anybody that Keith was not exactly the most social person. He enjoyed a night in way more than a night out, but Shiro wants him to go out more. He thinks it’s healthy for him or whatever, he can still have fun so he goes out every once in a while.

It didn’t take long for him to reach the café and be on his way to put in his order. Lance wasn’t there, great. Totally not a bit disappointed.

‘’Oh hey Keith!’’ The young barista was a friend of Keith and Shiro’s, Their name was Pidge, if Keith remembered correctly Pidge was also friends with Lance.

‘’Hey Pidge, can I have the usual? Plus two croissants, please.’’ He pulled out his wallet and gave Pidge the money.

‘’Sure thing man, to go or to stay?’’ Pidge starts making his coffee.

‘’To stay, Shiro will be here soon.’’

‘’Kay. Speaking of Shiro, I heard you guys went clubbing last night’’ They pull out a plate with the croissants.

‘’Did shiro tell you? But yeah we did, him and Allura dragged me out, I ended up ditching them though, felt like a third wheel you know.’’ They did not need to know more than that.

‘’hmmm… I heard you did a little more than that though’’ They smirk as they put the coffee on the counter, then lean on it. ’’You found a guy didn’t you, and not just any guy right?’’ Their smirk turned into a fullblown smile with a head resting on their hand as they inspected Keith.

Damn, how did this kid just know everything? Did Shiro tell them? No Shiro wasn’t the type to talk about other peoples love life, Allura might though, or had Lance talked to him?

They were interrupted by the bell at the door and Keith turned towards the door and saw Shiro. ‘’Saved by the bell’’ Pidge whispered and sighed. Pidge loved knowing everything about everyone. Shiro and Pidge greeted each other while Keith went and found a seat. He checked his phone again, no new notifications. Before long Shiro came and joined him.

‘’So how is your paper coming along?’’ he started talking to avoid a certain subject.

‘’Fine. So, the guy, it’s totally Lance, right?’’

Fuck. Going straight to the point huh.

‘’Look can we just not talk about it? It was just a drunken night with some guy okay, it’s not a big deal.’’ Lance probably didn’t even like him so it didn’t matter.

Shiro sighed, ‘’fine, fine but just think about how rare it is for you to not be annoyed as hell by a person, I think you should ask him out, it’s been ages since you’ve gone out with someone.’’ He leaned back in the comfortable café chair and put his hands behind his head. ‘’On the bright side you can double date with me and Allura, so you won’t have to be a third wheel all the time.’’

He admits that dating someone might not be the worst idea, but Lance? It’s not like he wants to cradle him in his arms. Ok maybe he did but that was irrelevant.

‘’Lance doesn’t even like me, and he is annoying. Besides he hasn’t texted me yet, he’s obviously not interested and I don’t mind being the third wheel, hanging out with you guys is fun.’’ He took a sip of his coffee as Shiro started talking again.

‘’Hahah I knew It was lance, you know it’s really obvious, especially with all the time you spent here at the café, and all the staring in chemistry class, you really like him don’t you? And dude it’s not even the afternoon yet, he’s probably not even awake yet’’

Keith was surprised and almost choked on his coffee and started coughing. Fuck he let it slip didn't he. When he was done coughing he just answered with a little too high pitched ‘’no… it’s not him… and shush Pidge is right over there.’’

‘’It wouldn’t even be weird if he waited a couple of days with texting you, that’s pretty normal’’ Shiro just laughed a little and then started drinking his latte.

They sat in silence for a while and enjoyed their coffee and food, the quiet cozy café with a bit of music in the background and not a lot of people, it was nice. The bell at the door rang as someone entered and caught their attention. Keith knew that tall and tan figure a little too well.

Chapter Text

‘’Lance! You are so late, Jesus Christ man’’

‘’Sorry Pidge, I stayed out late, then overslept, and you know my beauty routine takes some time.’’

Beauty routine? That was kind of hilarious, but Keith could totally imagine it. Lance thankfully hadn’t seen him yet and went straight behind the counter to put on an apron. Keith looked at Shiro who was sending him funny looks, oh no, Keith did not like this situation. He slit further down in his chair to make himself less noticeable.

‘’Ah yes, the ever so long lasting beauty routine, taking up one bathroom at a time, preventing everyone near him to get ready themselves.’’

‘’Whatever Pidge, I’m here now aren’t I? Anyway, are we busy today?’’

‘’yes, you are, just like a certain someone.’’ they whispered as they sighed.
‘’no, we’re not that busy so far, but it’s a saturday so it will probably pick up soon. So, did you have fun last night? Since you stayed out so late.’’

Lance still hadn’t noticed them, thank god. And no, Keith totally wasn’t eaves dropping on their conversation. He was not at all curious as to what Lance had to say, not one bit. Keith put his arm on the armrest and rested his face in his hand, covering half his face while not so subtly glancing over at Pidge and Lance.

‘’Yeah, I had a lot of fun. I actually met a pretty cool guy, I even got his number? And we had so much fun together, but you know my luck with people it’s probably not even his real number’’

‘’Lance, not everyone is like that girl, Nyma? and why the self-doubt? You’re usually so confident.’’ They leaned sideways on the counter.
Lance mimicked the action but instead he leaned on his back and crossed his arms, turning away from the room. This was his chance, he put on his jacket as silently as possible, put his phone in his pocket and got up.

‘’I don’t know pidge, he’s just really cool and I don’t want to screw up I guess. ‘’ Lance scratched the back of his neck.
Fuck. Keith was so fucked. Lance though he was cool? Crap he could feel his face grow warmer and a blush appearing on his cheeks. He needed to leave, right now, so he started moving but Shiro grabbed his arm and whispered ‘’oh no you don’t, you should go talk to him’’.

Damn Shiro, why did he suddenly want to meddle with his life?

‘’Seems like you really have the hots for him huh,’’ Pidge glanced over at Keith and Shiro, obviously knowing what had just happened. Then the door opened, the bell rang and lance turned around and saw Keith.

‘’Keith?’’ Lance eyes widened and his cheeks went slightly red. Keith figured lance probably knew that he had heard.

‘’Busy, got to go! T-text me?’’ Keith had said that very quickly and then hurried out the door not looking back. ‘’Keith! Wai-‘’ Lance quickly got distracted with serving the small group of people that had just entered the café.

‘’Wow, smoooth’’ shiro commented as he slid up beside Keith and started to laugh.

‘’shut up Shiro.’’ He hadn’t flirted in a long time, he wasn’t exactly that great at it in the first place so he tried not to.

‘’it’s not like you’re any better, when you first met Allura you were a mess, you could barely say two words in front of her.’’

‘’And look where we are now? Deeply in love and- ‘’

‘’stop. please.’’ He groaned, ‘’anyway, do you have any plans later or do you want to hang out?’’

‘’Actually, I made plans with Allura… I told her you would come too’’ He scratched the back of his head and smiled awkwardly.

Oh boy. Third wheeling once again.

Chapter Text

Keith admits that going to the café where Lance works might not have been the best idea, but he was a regular he couldn’t just suddenly go somewhere else, that would be weird. Lance thought Keith was cool. Keith, cool? Well he probably ruined that today but Keith couldn’t stop thinking about it. Lance was worried that Keith had given him the wrong number which means he probably wanted to go on a date with him or something. But how could he be sure, I mean sure lance had said he was cool and that he didn’t want to screw it up. Screw what up though it’s not like they have interacted all that much before. ‘’Keith’’ He was kind of surprised that he had a beauty routine but he could also imagine it, Lance was well dressed and always looked good.

‘’Keith’’

His smooth skin, his long fingers, his short hair that sometimes looked messy but in a good way, he was tall, but not too tall, he was slim but had a hint of muscles, very much his type oh and those lips, so soft. Lance was such a good kisser, would he kiss him again? He wan-

‘’KEITH KOGANE’’ Shiro had finally caught Keiths attention.

‘’huh?’’

‘’I was asking you what you would rather do. Go bowling or catch a movie?’’ Keith could clearly hear the annoyance in his voice, how long had he been zoned out? ‘’Or would you rather stay here all night pining for Lance?’’

‘’I am NOT pining Jesus Shiro and bowling I guess.’’ He figured the lovey-dovey couple would probably pick some romance movie and Keith was not in the mood for that.

‘’Great, I’ll let Allura know.’’

Keith turned his attention from Shiro to one of his textbooks, he opened it, found the correct page and started reading.

‘’You should invite Lance to go with us.’’ Keith looked up at Shiro who was still on his phone.

‘’What? No.’’

‘’Come on it’ll be fun, it’ll be like a double date’’

‘’Shiro I am not inviting Lance to go bowling with you and Allura.’’

‘’If you won’t I will, this way you’ll never get anywhere’’

‘’Nice try, you don’t even have his number’’

‘’Lance Mcclain, attends our college, is a barista, should be him. Wow his profile picture is actually really nice he’s very photogenic’’

‘’Shiro, what the fuck are you doing’’

‘’Friend request sent’’

‘’Shiro. No.’’ Keith got up and walked towards Shiro while wearing his very familiar frown, he was often told he frowned too much. He tried to take the phone but damn it Shiro was way too strong.

‘’I am typiiing.’’

‘’Shiro please stop it’s not funny.’’

‘’I won’t press send if you ask him.’’

Keith sighed, ‘’fine.’’ Keith asking would be less awkward than having his roommate ask a guy out on his behalf. Damn Shiro, why was he so pushy all of a sudden, something wasn’t right. He started typing out his message but quickly glanced up to see that Shiro was staring at him, smirking.

‘’Stop staring at me it’s creepy.’’ Shiro didn’t answer but turned his attention elsewhere so Keith just returned to trying to type out a good and casual text.

‘Hi Lance!’

No, definitely not.

‘Hey Lance, me and my friends’’ No that would make it seem like more people would be joining. Deleted.

‘Hey Lance. Shiro, Allura and me are going bowling, wanna join?’

‘’Shiro, what time are we going?’’

‘’Allura and me were thinking one hour of bowling at six and then some dinner after.’’

‘’Kay’’ he wondered how It had turned out this way.

‘Hey Lance. Shiro, Allura and me are going bowling at 6, wanna join? – Keith’

Okay that one seemed fine, factual, and straight to the point but was it too boring? Should he use hi or hey? Was it necessary to add the Keith, since he had already saved his number? Did he know Shiro and Allura? Keith lowered his phone.

‘’isn’t it too early to ask him on a date we just exchanged numbers yesterday’’

‘’It probably is but hey no one said it was a date, just two dudes, hanging out, being gay. Besides you have a class together don’t you?’’

‘’…right…’’ Hanging out? Being gay? What great humor.

‘’besides if you won’t ask, I will’’ Keith sent Shiro a short glare before looking at his phone again. He took a deep breath and pressed send. It was only a little past two in the afternoon so lance was still at work which Keith was happy about since it gave him more time to mentally prepare for the rejection.

Keith Kogane>>>> Lancelot
(14:21)Keith Kogane: Hey Lance. Shiro, Allura and me are going bowling at 6, wanna join? – Keith

Lancelot, drunk Keith had thought it would be fun to name him that, since he’s so charming. Sober Keith, not so much.

‘’Okay I sent it.’’ Why did he have to be so obedient to Shiro?

‘’Great. Did you know he has four siblings? From the looks of it two of them are younger and the other two are older.’’

Keith looked at him with a facial expression of confusion mixed with a little disgust. ’’Are you stalking him on Facebook? What are you, a teenage girl stalking her friends crush?’’

‘’So, you admit you have a crush on him.’’

‘’I did no such thing, now leave me alone.’’ Keith picked up his book and tried to read the assigned homework.

‘’Oh come on its not every day my little Keith gets a crush on someone, I am allowed to be excited’’

‘’Shut up, it is not a crush’’

‘’Whatever you say buddy.’’ Shiro took out his laptop and Keith just ignored him.

Keith may or may not have a teeny tiny crush on a certain long legged Latino. Even if he did he would certainly not admit it to his roommate who was suspiciously interested in the whole matter. He started to feel nervous about meeting lance again so soon, what if he didn’t like sober Keith? He wasn’t exactly the most entertaining guy in the whole world. If you hadn’t guessed already he did not go on that many dates, well at least Allura and Shiro was there if it ever got awkward. Oh god, now he was happy they were coming too?

Keith did not get much of his reading done, he couldn’t concentrate and kept thinking about his double date later. It had been over an hour and Lance still hadn’t replied. He probably didn’t have time because of work but it still made Keith anxious.

He got up and gathered his bath things, and some clothes ‘’I’m gonna go shower’’ he stated as he left the room.

He entered the shower room and looked around, empty, nice. He turned on the shower before undressing so it wouldn’t be cold when he entered. He pulled off his shirt, pants, underwear and went in. The warm water hit his face and he could feel his body relax, he waited a minute or two before he started to wash his hair and body.

After he finished washing he just stood in the shower enjoying the warm water until he heard his phone buzz. He sighed, turned off the water, quickly dried of his body and put the towel around his waist.

He had one new notification. From Lance. He panicked a little bit but quickly opened it.

Lancelot>>>>Keith Kogane
(15:48)Lancelot: I’d love to! I get off at 16:30 so I should be able to make it :D

He’d love to. Lance would love to. And he put a smiley. Cute.

Keith stared at the text for a while, should he reply? He probably should.

Keith Kogane>>>> Lancelot
(15:50)Keith Kogane: Great, see you there.

Keith kept staring at the screen with a smile until realized just how naked he was when he started feeling cold so he got dressed and headed back to his room.

Chapter Text

i know some people wanted me to continue this but i have officially dropped it sorry, i just know i wont finish or rewrite it.

But to give some closure, my idea with their date was that they would be competitive and make a bet over who would win, the loser has to do 1 thing the winner wants and that things is a kiss (and free dinner), and they end up as couple basically.